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12:20 PM ET, August 27, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Nilay Patel / Engadget:
Snow Leopard review  —  Snow Leopard.  Even the name seems to underpromise — it's the first “big cat” OS X codename to reference the previous version of the OS, and the list of big-ticket new features is seemingly pretty short for a version-number jump.  Maybe that's why Apple's priced …
RELATED:
Walter S. Mossberg / Personal Technology:
Apple Changes Leopard's Spots  —  For a company known for breakthrough products with cool features, Apple this week is doing something unusual: It is introducing a key product with very few new features that are visible to its users.  This new release, the latest major version …
Om Malik / GigaOM:
How Big Is the Apple iPhone App Economy?  The Answer Might Surprise You  —  If I were to tell you that Apple's app economy was worth more than $2.4 billion a year, you would laugh hysterically, shake your head and walk out of the room, yes?  Surf on over to some other web site?
RELATED:
Paul Boutin / VentureBeat:
AdMob finds Android app users more scarce, but just as obsessed as iPhone app users
Discussion: AdMob Metrics and Mashable!
Nokia:
Maemo 5 injects speed and power into mobile computing  —  The new Nokia N900: Computer-grade performance in a handset  —  Espoo, Finland - Nokia today marked the next phase in the evolution of Maemo software with the new Nokia N900.  Taking its cues from the world of desktop computing …
RELATED:
Chris Davies / SlashGear:
Nokia N900 and Maemo 5 get official [Video]
Discussion: Fast Company and Walyou
Robert Andrews / paidContent:
Pictures: Fire On Google's Roof, UK HQ Evacuated, Barbecue Blamed  —  Google's a hot company to work for - literally.  A fire atop its UK HQ on Victoria's Buckingham Palace Road in London forced its evacuation shortly after Thursday lunchtime.  “Yes, there has been a fire at Google (NSDQ …
Robert McMillan / PC World:
New Attack Cracks Common Wi-Fi Encryption in a Minute  —  Computer scientists in Japan say they've developed a way to break the WPA encryption system used in wireless routers in about one minute.  —  The attack gives hackers a way to read encrypted traffic sent between computers and certain types …
Monica Chen / DigiTimes:
Asustek to launch e-book reader under Eee family  —  Asustek Computer plans to launch an e-book reader under its Eee brand by the end of 2009 at the earliest, according to company president Jerry Shen.  —  Meanwhile, Micro-Star International (MSI) is also evaluating the e-book reader market, according to industry sources.
Brandon Badger / Google Book Search Blog:
Download Over a Million Public Domain Books from Google Books in the Open EPUB Format  —  Over the years, we've heard a lot from people who've unearthed hidden treasures in Google Books: a crafter who uncovered a forgotten knitting technique, a family historian who discovered her ancestor once traveled …
RELATED:
Farhad Manjoo / Slate:
Unchain the Office Computers!  —  Why corporate IT should let us browse any way we want.  —  During a town hall meeting for State Department workers last month, an employee named Jim Finkle asked Hillary Clinton a very important question: “Can you please let the staff use an alternative Web browser called Firefox?”
Discussion: Techdirt
Miguel Helft / Bits:
Is Google Entering the Mortgage Quote Business?  —  Google plans to begin offering loan quotes online as early as this month, a lawsuit filed in federal court this week claims.  The suit was filed by LendingTree, which offers consumers mortgage quotes and conditional loan offers online …
Globe and Mail:
Facebook agrees to privacy changes  —  Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart says Facebook has agreed to changes that will bring the social networking site into compliance with Canadian law.  —  In a press conference, Ms. Stoddart said Facebook, among other pledges, has agreed to new features …
Discussion: p2pnet
RELATED:
Andrew LaVallee / Digits:
Canada Privacy Commissioner on Facebook's ‘Retrofit’
Tameka Kee / paidContent:
Console Price Wars: Microsoft Drops Xbox Elite Down To $299  —  Hoping to boost console sales this holiday season, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has dropped the price of its Elite Xbox 360 to $299.  The $100 price cut comes just about a week after Sony (finally) slashed the price of the PS3, also to $299.
Serkan Toto / MobileCrunch:
Apple finally enters the world's biggest mobile market: China to get the iPhone in October  —  Major Chinese news portal 163.com is reporting [Google machine translation] that Apple has finally signed a deal with China Unicom to bring the iPhone 3G to mainland China in October.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Boxcar 2.0 Is A Must-Have For the iPhone.  It's The Best Push Notification App Yet.  —  A few days ago, I wrote about the frustration over the delay in approving the new Facebook app for the iPhone.  That should launch any day now, and it's a good thing because as soon as it does …
Discussion: jkOnTheRun
Simon St. Laurent / O'Reilly Radar:
Why is HTML Suddenly Interesting?  —  Web developers couldn't stop talking about HTML and its evolution during the 1990s.  New features were usually tempting, though not always workable, and the Browser Wars meant that vendors competed by providing and copying features.
Discussion: Mashable!, Thanks:atul
John Markoff / New York Times:
Defying Experts, Rogue Computer Code Still Lurks  —  It is still out there.  —  Like a ghost ship, a rogue software program that glided onto the Internet last November has confounded the efforts of top security experts to eradicate the program and trace its origins and purpose …
Barry Collins / PC Pro:
Porn collection put people off upgrading to Firefox 3  —  Mozilla's Security team has disclosed a very interesting piece of research which suggests people refused to upgrade to the latest version of Firefox because they were afraid the browser would expose their, ahem, private collection of websites.
Scott Moritz / TheStreet.com:
AT&T Opted Out of Motorola's Android Plan  —  SCHAUMBURG, Ill. (TheStreet) — Motorola's (MOT Quote) one last chance has one fewer partner to help make it happen.  —  AT&T (T Quote) cancelled plans to carry Google (GOOG Quote) Android-powered phones later this year, says MKM Partners analyst Tero Kuittinen …
Elinor Mills / CNET News:
Researchers who hack the Mac OS  —  It was summer 2005.  Dino Dai Zovi walked into a Manhattan Starbucks, ordered a coffee, sat down, and opened up his laptop.  —  Before his coffee was cold he had found a local privilege escalation vulnerability in Mac OS X Tiger, which could allow people …
Austin Modine / The Register:
Judge orders cybersquatter to pay Verizon $33m  —  Massive default damages ruled acceptable  —  A federal court in California has upheld a massive $33.15m penalty against a cybersquatting domain aggregator that registered hundreds of websites mimicking Verizon's name and trademarks.
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
AOL, Still Shaking Up Staff, Hires New CFO Artie Minson  —  Newish AOL CEO Tim Armstrong hasn't gone on a massive firing binge.  But he's still shaking up the ranks at the Time Warner (TWX) unit.  Today, for instance, he is installing a new chief financial officer: Artie Minson …
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Facebook Wants To Own Idea Of Crowdsourced Translations  —  Facebook is the biggest social network in the world, so it may come as a surprise to some that up until early 2008, it didn't offer any localized versions of the site at all.  The company managed to jumpstart its international presence …
Discussion: BaltTech and Softpedia News, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Yoono Grows Up, Launches A Desktop App  —  Yoono, a nifty IE and Firefox plug-in that serves as both a social network aggregator and media hub, is launching a desktop version of their browser sidebar.  Yoono basically aggregates and centralizes your online profiles, including IM tools …
Ivor Tossell / Globe and Mail:
Progressive signals?  From the Tories?  On copyright?  —  Access Copyright, a group that collects copyright fees for things like textbooks, put out a curious statement earlier this month in the midst of the latest debate over copyright reform.  —  “It's a simple fact that users outnumber us …
Discussion: Michael Geist Blog and p2pnet
Nicholas Kolakowski / eWeek:
Microsoft Downplays Yahoo Upgrades to E-Mail, Search, Messenger Apps  —  Microsoft responds to Yahoo's Aug. 24 announcement of upgrades for users by insisting that it had already integrated many of Yahoo's new features, including search results from social networking sites such as Facebook, into its offerings for Windows Live.
Discussion: GigaOM and LiveSide
Tricia Duryee / mocoNews:
Don't Have VC Money?  There's Contests Galore For Mobile Apps  —  In the race to build the biggest and best application store in mobile, a number of handset makers, operators are hosting a contests that will reward winners with cold-hard cash and other prizes if they build great ideas for their platform.
 
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 More Items: 
Timothy Prickett Morgan / The Register:
Tibco snaps up DataSynapse for $28m
Discussion: Mass High Tech
Bloomberg:
SAP Ordered by Jury in Texas to Pay $139 Million to Versata Over Patents
Discussion: Tech Trader Daily and The Register
Nokia:
Nokia fine-tunes its organization: Establishes Solutions unit …
Discussion: IntoMobile and Phone Scoop
Juan Carlos Perez / PC World:
Developers Salivating Over Twitter's Geolocation Plans
Marcel van de Hoef / Bloomberg:
TomTom, Garmin See Map-Device Rebound in 2010, Defy ‘Terminal Decline’
 Earlier Items: 
Steve Lohr / Bits:
Zoho: Thriving Amid the Giants
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Zoho Blogs and TechCrunch, Thanks:rajuv
Kristina Grifantini / Technology Review:
Formalizing the retweet may change people's behavior.
Discussion: Off On A Tangent